Celluloid Subjects to Digital Directors. Jennifer Debenham
away from any other collections because of the safety hazard they posed, the films were found in their original cardboard boxes.25 This undoubtedly played a vital role in their survival. The Museum received them in 1916 when Spencer’s collection was annexed to Museum Victoria from the University of Melbourne.26 At Dunlop’s insistence the films were transferred to the NFSA where they were copied onto safety film.27 These are the duplicates that are now available for viewing. The original films are now stored in a special unit at the NFSA in Canberra, formerly known as the National Historical Film and Speaking Record Library (within the then Commonwealth National Library). Museum Victoria holds the copyright for access to the copied Spencer and Gillen films held at the NFSA.
Spencer and Gillen’s expedition was funded from various sources and not all contributions were monetary. The University of Melbourne did not contribute financially to the expedition but granted Spencer a year’s unpaid leave from his teaching post. In addition, Spencer contributed funds to the sum of £400 from his father, Reuben, an amount debited to his share of his inheritance when his father died.28 Gillen was granted leave for the year from his position at the post office as well as receiving allowances of approximately £400. The South Australian government granted approximately £200 in concessions for railway transport between Adelaide and Oodnadatta.29 The pair also received support from the ←24 | 25→Governor of South Australia, Sir Fredrick Holder, in addition to the rail concessions, he supplied a trap and tackling as well as “four suitable horses from the Govt”.30
By far the largest financial contribution of £1,000 came from The Age (Melbourne) newspaper proprietor, David Syme who in return for this donation published regular field reports from Spencer during the course of the expedition. The articles greatly increased sales for The Age’s weekly magazine supplement, The Leader, and captured the popular imagination.31 Both Spencer and Gillen used their professional connections to gain any small advantage possible. Spencer acquired letters of introduction from “Alfred Deakin and other politicians supporting their expedition” and through Gillen they used telegraph stations as supply bases.32 They were granted the services of Mounted Trooper Chance as driver, cook and handyman, however this cost them £200.33 They were also accompanied by two Arrernte men from Charlotte Waters, Purunda (Warwick) and Erlikiliaka (Jim Kite) as horse handlers.34
From Gillen’s correspondence about the preparations, it is clear that the expedition was underfunded for its ambitious objectives.35 Long, physically exhausting days in the field were followed at night by hours of developing photographs from glass plates, processing collected animal specimens, writing up field notes and journals as well as correspondence to Syme and family members could have been made less arduous had more funds been forthcoming to hire another assistant.
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Reception and Distribution
By the time Spencer and Gillen returned to Melbourne the articles in the The Leader, had achieved their objective. The films were highly anticipated for their promise of conveying images of primitive and exotic people and for the novelty of the new technology of film.
In the new century, moving films became a popular form of entertainment for the masses, generating the production of short films. Known at the time as actualities, many portrayed scenes from everyday Western life but a large number contained images of exotic and primitive peoples that drew voyeuristic interest. Considered by some at the time as a cheap and vulgar form of entertainment, images of exotic peoples were shown in nickelodeon arcades, circus side-shows and Coney Island-like venues around the Western world; titillating a mainly working-class audience. At numerous venues, still photographs could be purchased to take home as a souvenir. Under the guise of anthropological science, Spencer and Gillen’s films similarly permitted this transgression for their patrons. Although their films were shot with a scientific lens, the unfamiliar customs established the Aboriginal people in the film as the “exotic” Other to the audience. Screening these “stone age” people confirmed for Western audiences that they were far more civilised and scientifically advanced; the films presented this stark contrast. The humanity of the Aboriginal people in the film was subsumed as they became objects to be observed, studied, watched, or to provide titillating entertainment. Presented by an authoritative and popular scientist to the general public, the films depict the subjects of the films who have little say in how and where the films could be presented – as objects they are what is being shown rather than the ones doing the showing, or being shown to. These images and the ideas surrounding them also became commodities.
While buying into film’s popularity, Spencer and Gillen made a concerted effort to distance their work from those shown in other places of popular entertainment such as penny arcades and the like. In contrast, their films of Aboriginal people attempted to shift their representations toward a more scientific and educational appraisal. The opening night at Melbourne’s Town Hall was a spectacular affair, attended by a capacity ←26 | 27→crowd of about 2,000 people, including Victoria’s governor Sir George Sydenham Clarke and other dignitaries. The multi-media event comprised phonograph recordings, cinematographs (moving films), and lantern slides of still photographs, and a lecture authored and delivered by Spencer, a respected and popular academic figure.
The lectures were so popular that subsequent presentations were held in the Athenaeum Theatre in Collins Street and other regional areas such as Castlemaine. Using lecture notes prepared by Spencer, Gillen presented the films, lantern slides and sound recordings to an equally auspicious audience in Adelaide’s Town Hall and to the Royal Geographic Society rooms in Adelaide and in numerous venues in regional South Australia. In all, at least sixty-three lectures are known to have been delivered in the two years after their return, underlining the popularity of their work and the fascination with the Aboriginal image.36 The importance of presenting the films at premier venues, with state dignitaries in attendance, along with Spencer’s intellectually authoritative lecture gave the lectures the credentials of being serious science, laying the foundations of visual anthropology in Australia.
Both men were adept showmen in the sense that they excelled at self-promotion; Spencer regularly presented lectures at various gentlemen’s clubs in Melbourne such as the Savage Club.37 His ability to ←27 | 28→organise meetings and promote attention to his eclectic interests, ranging from cricket to nature clubs, is well documented by his biographer John Mulvaney. While treading a fine line between vulgarity and popularising science, Spencer and Gillen’s films opened a new media source for viewing images of Aboriginal peoples.
Popularising science using film, lantern slides and sound recordings held risks and advantages for Spencer and Gillen which they had to balance within the context of the novelty of film and serious scientific practice and teaching. Like the side-show entrepreneurs, they charged a fee for admission and advertised their lectures in newspapers and on flyers. They also produced vast quantities of still photographs which were sold to their audiences to take home as mementos. Although they employed these commonplace commercial practices, they relied heavily on Spencer’s international academic reputation to make their films respectable by heavily promoting their scientific value. The funds raised were used to buy equipment for the science